Hoplophoneus skull - miniature sabertooth cat

3D Model

Skull of the miniature “false sabertooth cat” Hoplophoneus sp.: one of the top predators of the US Great Plains ~30 million years ago in the Oligocene Epoch. It belonged to the Nimravidae which were closely related to cats, but not a “true” cat, having shorter, stockier legs & a shorter tail

Giant saber teeth (actually modified canines) have evolved a number of times in cat-like mammals and are thought to have been used to deliver a fast, precise bite to the neck, severing major blood vessels and causing death through loss of blood. Living big cats (like lions) have short, stout, canines, and kill by crushing the windpipe of their prey, causing death by asphyxiation

Scanned from an original fossil skull held in the collection of Badlands Dinosaur Museum, Dickinson Museum Center, Dickinson North Dakota. A public museum & registered non-profit:

http://dickinsonmuseumcenter.com/

File prepared by museum staff. Scan by A. Hendrix; optimized by D. Fowler. Created using a Revopoint Pop2 scanner